


The soul knows only to love

by zipadeea



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Downton Abbey Spoilers, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Married Life, Newborn Children, Slice of Life, and damian loves her dearly, bruce threatens to disinherit steph, jason watches downton abbey, selina kyle is a not actually wicked but definitely morally ambiguous stepmother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-19
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-16 09:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18519040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zipadeea/pseuds/zipadeea
Summary: "Most of his family had been very Worried about Damian after Father and Kyle announced that she was with child.Grayson was worried that he would feel replaced, neglected.Drake was worried he would murder the new baby in the dead of night."***Selina Kyle has a baby. Damian Wayne isn't sure what to make of his new sister.





	The soul knows only to love

**Author's Note:**

> Psst. Damian is actually such a huge sweetheart. He just needs to be nurtured and loved. Lol hope you enjoy the story.

“Where is Kyle?” Damian asks around a yawn, jumping on to the stool at the breakfast bar. Most days, by the time Damian is up and ready for school Father is already off to work, leaving Damian to dine with his not actually wicked, but often morally ambiguous stepmother.

 _Good morning, kitten,_ Kyle always says with a smirk, as she pours cream into her coffee.

Her decaffeinated coffee, as of late.

“Your father and Mistress Selina left for the hospital at quarter past three this morning.”

Damian absolutely does not spit out his orange juice in shock.

(And Pennyworth absolutely does not smile.)

“Is Kyle certain she is not having Braxton-Hicks? Perhaps it’s only false labor, it is two weeks before the due date set by her obstetrician.”

“It is only ten days before the original due date,” Pennyworth counters, “And yes, I do believe Mistress Selina is positive in her assessment. Her water broke.”

“Tt.”

This time, Pennyworth smiles.

“Why didn’t they wake me?” Pennyworth’s smile fades a bit. He turns around and picks up the carafe of orange juice on the counter behind him.

“I believe they went in to bid you goodbye. Perhaps they did not wish to wake you.”

“Impossible. I was trained from birth by master assassins, Pennyworth. I would know if Father and Kyle were in my room this morning.”

“Well, Master Damian, your father and stepmother are both rather good at, shall we say, sneaking.”

“Tt.” Damian scoffs. But now that he thinks about it, he vaguely recollects a kiss to his forehead, a blanket pulled up to his chin.

_Sweet dreams, kitten._

“Are you taking me to the hospital after breakfast?” Damian asks shortly, wiping his hands with his napkin before jumping down from the stool. He grabs his plate and walks it quickly over to the sink.

“No, you have school, Master Damian.”

Damian scowls. “School is pointless.”

“Education is the pillar of society.”

“American school is pointless.”

Pennyworth is pointedly silent.

“I will pick you up as soon as there is news. Labor can last hours, Master Damian, days even.” Damian inwardly cringes in sympathy.

He looks up at Pennyworth, eyes hard. “Do you swear?”

Pennyworth’s mouth is solemn, but his eyes twinkle. “I do so swear, Master Damian.”

000

Damian can feel the incessant buzz of his phone in his pocket during his History exam.

He finishes the test quickly and asks to be excused to the restroom. Damian sprints to the toilet and quietly locks himself in a stall as he finally scrolls through the plethora of message.

It begins with a picture of a tiny, nondescript newborn, eyes closed, wearing a pink hat.

_Father: Helena Martha Wayne, born 11:37 AM. 7 lbs. 9oz. 20.5 inches long. Mother and daughter are doing well._

_Grayson changed the group name to “Helena Wayne Fan Club <3<3<3”_

_Grayson: AHHHHHHHHH she’s so cute oh my god. Leaving work now, can’t wait to meet baby sis!!!!!!!!!!_

_Todd: Congrats, pops. She’s got your nose_

_Fatgirl: I WON THE POT! I SAID IT WOULD BE A GIRL, I SAID SHE’D WEIGH 7 9, I SAID 20 INCHES IM BASICALLY PSYCHIC_

_Fatgirl: Also, she’s gorgeous, can’t wait to meet her. Be there in a couple hours (sorry, first I need to make my millions selling this pic to the paps)_

_Father: Anyone who shares this picture is out of the will._

_Cain: Helena is perfect 🙂_

_Idiot: I like the name. She looks a lot like Selina. Jason’s right about her nose, though, that’s all Bruce_

_Fatgirl: WAIT AM I IN THE WILL_

_Fatgirl:????????_

_Fatgirl: BRUCE WAYNE AM I IN YOUR WILL?????????_

_Gordon: Sorry, Steph, your predicted date was too far off. Alfred actually won the pot._

_Gordon: She’s beautiful, Bruce. Glad to hear all are well, I’ll be by soon._

The last message was sent from Gordon just two minutes ago. Damian scrolls up to the picture again, and takes a moment to study the child’s features.

Her face is very pink. Her eyelashes are dark and long. A wisp of black hair peeks out from under the knitted cap on her slightly wrinkled forehead.

Helena Wayne.

His sister.

_You: Do not give Pennyworth the pot, he promised to pick me up from school as soon as there was news. Someone save me from History class immediately._

_Todd: Say please, baby bird_

_You: I am no longer the baby bird._

_Grayson: !!!!!_

_Grayson: )’:_

_Grayson: You’ll always be my baby bird_

_Gordon: Don’t text and drive, Dick._

_Father: Do NOT text and drive._

_Todd: Jesus Dickiebird, don’t pull a Matthew Crawley on us_

_Fatgirl: JASON YOU WATCH DOWNTON ABBEY???????!!!!_

_You: Someone pick me up immediately._

…

…

...

_You: Please._

_Father: Alfred is on his way._

000

Most of his family had been very Worried about Damian after Father and Kyle announced that she was with child.

Grayson was worried that he would feel replaced, neglected.

Drake was worried he would murder the new baby in the dead of night.

All other family members seemed to fall somewhere in between on the spectrum, and all carved time out of their busy lives in the last nine months to participate in highly uncomfortable conversations of varying lengths with Damian about the subject.

Damian’s favorite had been Cain’s. They’d been out on patrol together one snowy night a few weeks before Christmas:

Cain said, “The new baby is good.”

Damian replied, “Yes.”

And that was that.

In contrast, the conversation with Fatgirl about the baby ranged from suggesting he hand out bubble gum cigars at school to volunteering for his unborn sibling in the Hunger Games, and technically didn’t end for two weeks.

Todd’s conversation had been the most unexpected. He’d pulled Damian aside after Thanksgiving dinner (Todd’s presence on the holiday had been a feat solely based on a tagteam effort of Kyle’s ingenuity and Pennyworth’s persistence.) He’d simply handed Damian a key.

“It’s to my safehouse on Third, baby bird. You know it? The one by the old theater?”

Damian had nodded.

“If you ever need a break, things get too much, you get in a fight with B and the cat, whatever it is, just give me a call. You crash there and cool down, capiche?”

Damian had nodded again, and looped the new key on his keyring, with the souvenir license plate keychain Grayson had given him from Niagara Falls and the housekey Pennyworth had given him his first terrifying week in the Manor.

Todd had smiled.

And that was that.

000

“I cannot believe you brought _cigars_ to a hospital, Jason.”

“They’re Cuban, Bruce, you really can’t complain. And it’s not like anybody’s smoking them here. We’re supposed to be celebrating, aren’t we? It’s tradition!” Damian hears Todd reply as he finally enters the hospital room.

“C’mon, sweetheart, get a sense of humor,” Kyle says tiredly, winking at Damian and patting the bed next to her when she sees him in the doorway.

Todd is sitting in a chair beside Kyle’s bed, a pink bundle settled comfortably in his arms. Drake and Brown are laughing in the corner. Cain is standing next to a chair, holding a teddy bear larger than herself in the other corner. Gordon’s parked herself to the left of Kyle’s bed, smiling widely. And Father—Father is pointing a very clunky, very old camera at Todd and Helena in the chair, filming it all.

Damian leaves Pennyworth in the doorway and jumps on to the bed with Kyle.

“How did the History test go, kitten? I know the American revolution can be quite a bitch.” Kyle smirks at him, putting an arm around his shoulders.

“Tt. I aced it. Obviously.”

“Obviously.” Kyle tightens the arm around his shoulders.

She looks very tired. The circles under her eyes are dark and pronounced, and the lack of makeup isn’t helping anything. Her hair is a hopeless rat’s nest. There’s a stain of baby sputum on the overlarge robe that Kyle’s wearing, a plaid one of Father’s that she stole from him months ago.

And yet, Damian doubts he’s ever seen her happier.

Her smile is so wide.

Father’s smile, behind the old, old video camera he refuses to relinquish, is so wide.

They are happy.

Damian allows himself to lean his head on her shoulder for a few seconds.

“I’m sorry I missed breakfast,” Kyle whispers softly in his ear.

Damian smiles. “I suppose there were extenuating circumstances.”

He reaches down to pull the paper out of his bag before handing it over to Kyle.

“I made this for you in Mathematics class,” Damian says shortly, “I was exceedingly bored.”

Kyle smirks, and looks down at the drawing Damian has made for her.

It’s a picture of a black cat with a regal diamond collar, loftily walking along a rooftop. A sweet little white kitten is following behind her, mimicking her movements like a duckling.

“It’s lovely, Damian I--,” Kyle halts. She’s flipped the drawing over to read the inscription.

_To: Kyle_

_Love: Damian_

Damian had meant to put "from.” He’d intended to say “sincerest regards” or “best.”

But instead, he wrote “love.” Because Grayson and Father always get soft smiles and watery eyes when he writes it on the back of their drawings. Because Kyle is family now. And because—because Damian may or may not possibly very much love his not actually wicked but definitely morally ambiguous stepmother.

Kyle’s face screws up painfully, and she grips Damian’s shoulder even tighter.

“Oh,” she whispers softly. “Oh. I--,” her breath hitches. “I love you, too, Damian. I love you so much. And you—oh, honey, you’ll always be my kitten. You’re my kitten, you know that, right? Even when I’m old and gray you’ll--oh, _Damian_ ,” Kyle lets out a soft sob, wrapping both arms tightly around Damian.

He decides to blame her very irregular behavior on hormones.

And he hugs her just as tightly.

When Damian looks up, he sees Father’s old, old camera staring straight at the pair of them.

000

Grayson takes over for patrol as Batman while Father is on paternity leave.

It’s certainly an adjustment, Damian has to admit, to be working with Grayson again instead of Father.

Damian cannot deny, however, that he has quite a lot of fun.

“Three more bites, then we can go.”

“Batman, this is an ice cream cone.”

“You heard me, Robin.”

One night, a week after Helena’s birthday, Grayson is still reviewing evidence on the computer in the cave when he sends Damian off to bed.

“But, Grayson--,”

“Bed. Now.”

For some inexplicable reason, Damian listens.

He trudges up the stairs to Father’s study by himself, quietly sneaking through the halls of the manor until he reaches the den.

Because Father is sitting there, silent and still, holding a squirming pink bundle in his arms while watching Seth Meyers.

Damian joins him on the couch without a word. Father wraps an arm around his shoulders and Damian leans in.

“Can I hold her?” Damian asks softly. Father complies immediately.

“Just mind her head.” He doesn’t take the arm away from Damian’s shoulders.

They both sit for a moment, silently observing the infant settling herself in her older brother’s arms.

Damian studied extensively before Helena was born. He studied birthing methods, the development of fetuses, the psychology of birth order in families, etc. until Damian was having very odd dreams every night of the week.

It still didn’t prepare him for holding the tiny baby in his arms.

She’s softer than he ever expected. Much more fragile and breakable.

She’s also very pretty, like a doll. Most pictures Damian found of newborns were wrinkled and red and awful. But Helena, Helena Wayne is practically perfect in every way. It’s a bit disconcerting to Damian.

Everyone has at least one flaw.

Helena’s tiny, tiny hand grabs for Damian’s pinky. Honestly, he cannot be held accountable for the smile that spreads across his face. It is a knee-jerk reaction.

The arm around Damian’s shoulders tightens exponentially.

“Damian,” Father whispers. Damian looks up.

Father’s gray eyes are wide and sad. So, so sad.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you were born. I’m so sorry.” He says softly, eyes drifting down painfully. Damian bites his lip.

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”

Father breathes heavily. “I’m still sorry. I wish I had been there.”

Silence.

“I do, too.” Damian finally says, and Father’s breath hitches.

“I suppose we’re all where we’re supposed to be now, though,” Damian adds, grinning softly at his baby sister. 

Father smiles. “I suppose so.”

[Grayson gets a picture of the moment on his phone, which he has framed and gifts to Father on Father’s Day of that year. A picture of Helena grabbing Damian’s pinky, and Damian smiling down at Helena, and Father with his arm wrapped around his son’s shoulder, smiling down at his youngest children.

Father keeps the picture on his desk until the day he dies.]

And Helena smiles.

**Author's Note:**

> I was only five when my youngest sister was born, but my most vivid memory of it is my mom always wearing my dad's robe, so i incorporated it here obviously lolol. All these characters deserve to be happy, so I gave them the sappiest happy ending I could think of. Also, I just imagine Bruce buying a video camera when Dick's a kid, and he does that Very Dad thing where he goes to all of Dick's school events and like, gymnastics competitions and awkwardly narrates the whole thing for posterity. 
> 
> And then does the same thing for each subsequent kid, and never bothers to replace the old clunky camera because "It still works fine, why do I need a new one?" It drives Tim crazy. 
> 
> Hope you liked the story!
> 
> Also, i'm zipadeea on tumblr. come say hi :)


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